When fishing from the bank of a river, it is the common practice for the fisherman, while he is waiting for a bite, ie while not actually casting the hook, or reeling in a fish, to lay his fishing rod down on the bank.
It has been recognised that the fisherman is often reluctant to lay his (expensive) rod on the ground, and proposals have been made in the prior art to provide a support, rest, stand, or holder, for the fishing rod. The function of such a device is to serve as a receptacle to support the rod clear of the ground, thereby allowing the fisherman to relinquish the rod from his hands.
In the use of these devices, even though he has relinquished manual contact, the fisherman maintains the rod under observation, so that, when a fish bites, he may quickly take the rod out of the receptacle and into his hands. He may then try to land the fish in the usual way.
As a refinement in such simple devices, the receptacle has been made movable, and is spring-biassed to an at-rest position. A strut or latch is placed in the path of the spring-biassed receptacle, and it has been proposed to use the sudden increase in the tension in the fishing line when a fish bites to automatically trigger the release of the latch.